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Do I really need to medicate?

28K views 323 replies 36 participants last post by  Riverderwent 
#1 ·
This is my first year bee keeping. So far I would say pretty successful. Bought two packages in late May. One hive has filled both deeps and working on two supers. Other hive has finally filled the first deep. Pretty good for a late start and no comb to start with.

I try not to bother them too much. Every time I open the hive I feel like I kill so many from the busy hive I feel bad about it. How do you set a 100 pound deep box down on a flood of bees pouring out everywhere.

My question is probably a dumb one, but is treating for diseases and pests something that must be done every year? I haven’t done anything for them but give them a good home to grow. Probably one good month left before it gets cold. I’ll take my supers off the busy hive the end of this month.

Thanks!
 
#306 ·
Leo Sharashkin says some of the things we discussed above.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll0hlf-O184

Like it or leave it.
There are places, like mine, where you just have to introduce some outside bees.
Saturation by the unfit imported packages just kill the sustainability for us here - the Italians, the "almond bees", and such junk.

BUT the import of the desired qualities IF done properly could actually function here well and long-term.
TF bees with appropriate winter hardiness should be a welcome import.
 
#307 ·
F
inal conclusion, it's not the bees, it's the mites that are different....
I would love a link to the study if you could find it

Interesting experiment A Novice, I hadn't heard about that one.
sounds like Seeley 2016
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0150362
Bee genetics, that is the answer
yep, but I noted that in there opening presentations At Apimondia bolth Sam Comfort and kirk Kirk Webster were putting management and environment on par or above genetics...

W
ait what? Total nonsense. If this beekeeper was truly TF, he would know how to deal with AFB, without treating or Burning the colony
Too funny, all we need to look at is Jacob Wustner’s presation at the Organically Managed Beekeeping Conference last year https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPn-uUmbZwY
OTs post 304 is on point..
with the exception that I disagree with the casting shade at moveable frame hives, Sam Comfort does that a lot, and it bugs me…
Its quite clear from Quimby’s writings the foulbrood out breaks predate frames..
Hive gets weak and gets robbed… now its every were in the yard, no swapping of frames needed to cause the issue. I would argue the start of shipping of queens (with candy made with honey) is the engine of the spread
 
#316 · (Edited)
As I drove my daughter to her 6am cross-country practice this morning I thought:
- Hmmm.... for all practical purposes of my daily life - The Earth is FLAT and only slightly hilly.

Indeed, this over-used cliche of the "Earth NOT being flat" is getting old.
Only 0.00000001 of the Earthly population have use and care for the special, nominally spherical shape of our planet.

Population of Nepal, in general, spend their entire life on the slopes of various degrees and have entirely different perspective about "what IS the shape of the Earth".
I don't even know what they think about the subject (I did not Google).
 
#322 ·
Grozzie, you are of course correct. 'Cept my little O-200 Connie won't ever see 12,500 on the altimeter, much less FL450. Now for a really great view, video from the Dragon Lady at FL700 is really cool.

As far as YT degrees and such, even a broken watch is correct twice each 24 hour period. You just learn to ignore it the rest of the time.
 
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